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Trains from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean
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Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean
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Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean by train
It takes an average of 5h 54m to travel from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean by train, over a distance of around 88 miles (142 km). There are normally 3 trains per day travelling from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean and tickets for this journey start from €19.30 when you book in advance.
From 2h 55m
88 miles (142 km)
3 trains per day
Departure station
Villeneuve-la-Comtesse
Arrival station
Bordeaux St-Jean
Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean train times
Check out the next trains departing from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean for Tuesday 11th Jul 2017. For the full train timetable/schedule, or to search for a later time or date, click here.
07:39 10:52 3h 13m, 2 changes
18:19 21:14 2h 55m, 1 change
19:23 06:57 11h 34m, 1 change
Search all times and prices for today
Cheap train tickets from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean
Train tickets from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean start at €19.30 one-way for a Standard Class ticket if you book in Advance, however, if you're booking last-minute tickets on the day, the average price is around €60.20.‡
lowest price found‡
on the day‡
avg. single price€60.20
Book in advance
Most of the train companies across Europe release their tickets around three to six months in advance, many of which can be cheaper the earlier you book. If you know the dates you want to travel, you may be able to find some cheaper train tickets from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean by booking early.§
Be flexible with your travel times
Many of the train services in Europe are also popular commuter services, lots of train companies increase ticket prices during "peak hours" (generally between 06:00 – 10:00 and 15:00 – 19:00 on weekdays). If you can, consider travelling outside of peak hours to find lower priced tickets.
Choose a slower or connecting train
On some of the busier routes, you might also have the option to take a slower or connecting train. It may take a little longer than some high-speed or direct services, but if you have a little extra time on your hands, you might find a cheaper fare. Plus, you'll have more time to enjoy the view of the countryside!
Look out for special deals
Take a look at our handy guide to check when European train operators release their special deals and offers to see if you can find cheap tickets for your journey.
For specific information about how to get your hands on cheap tickets, check out our European train tickets hub.
§Some train companies may not offer any Advance ticket types or cheaper deals for early bookings. On rare occasions, train companies may choose to release special offers closer to the date on last-minute or late-release tickets. This is dependent on the individual train operating company you travel with.
Want to know more about your journey from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean? We've compiled some of the most frequently asked questions by our customers to help you plan your journey.
How long does the train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean take?
The average journey time by train between Villeneuve-la-Comtesse and Bordeaux St-Jean is 5 hours and 54 minutes, with around 3 trains per day. The journey time may be longer on weekends and holidays, so use our Journey Planner on this page to search for a specific travel date.
What's the fastest journey time between Villeneuve-la-Comtesse and Bordeaux St-Jean by train?
The fastest journey time by train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean is 2 hours and 55 minutes.
How much does the train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean cost?
Train ticket prices from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean can start from as little as €19.30 when you book in advance. The cost of tickets can vary depending on the time of day, route and class you book and are usually more expensive if you book on the day.
Is there a direct train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean?
No, there are no direct train services from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean. Travelling from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean by train will require a minimum of 1 change.
What time does the first train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean leave?
The first train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean leaves at 07:39. Times and services may vary during weekends and holidays.
What time does the last train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean leave?
The last train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean leaves at 19:23. Trains that depart in the early morning hours or very late evening may be sleeper services, time and services may also vary during weekends and holidays.
What's the distance between Villeneuve-la-Comtesse and Bordeaux St-Jean by train?
Trains travelling from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean cover a distance of around 88 miles (142 km) during the journey.
†Average savings on fares booked prior to day of travel vs full price fares on day of travel in France. Subject to availability. Excludes coach. / ‡Average prices for adult tickets in economy. Discount cards and coach journey excluded. Prices are based on searches made by our customers over the past 6 months. "14 days in advance" includes days 13 and 15. / The information provided is calculated based on scheduled train services for Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Bordeaux St-Jean for a typical week day using timetable data for 11/07/2017. On weekends, holidays or other exceptional times, fewer services may be available. The fare range provided has been found by our customers on Trainline on 16/05/2019 for travel on 17/05/2019 and for adult tickets in economy, discount cards and coach journeys excluded.
Trains from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse
Trains from Bordeaux St-Jean
Ideas for other routes
Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to La Rochelle
Train Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Paris
Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to Cognac train
Train from Villeneuve-la-Comtesse to St-Jean-d'Angély
Bordeaux St-Jean to St-Émilion
Bordeaux St-Jean to Arcachon
Train Bordeaux St-Jean to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
Bordeaux St-Jean to Bergerac train
Train from Bordeaux St-Jean to Biarritz
Amsterdam-Centraal to Nijmegen
Assier to Rodez
Mannheim to Lille-Europe
La Rochelle to Toulon
Morlaix to Savenay


Soft, puffy and airy Garlic Naan topped with minced garlic and melted butter. Make this skillet naan bread on stove top. The recipe is so easy, hassle-free and delicious!
How to Make Garlic Naan?
Naan is one of the most popular Indian recipes on my site. Garlic Naan is a type of naan bread, with minced garlic on top of the bread.
To make the bread, you will need to make the naan dough, let it rest and then divide the dough into 8 portions. To cook the bread, use a cast iron skillet on the stove top. You don't need an oven to make them.
To make restaurant worthy Garlic Naan bread, I strongly recommend you to use a well-seasoned cast iron skillet.
Cast iron skillet retains higher heat and spreads heat evenly, making it perfect to cook the naan with airy pockets inside the bread, plus gorgeous looking brown blisters on top of the naan.
While resting the naan dough, cover it with a damp clothes.
This recipe yields 8 pieces of the bread and each piece is only 192 calories.
Yes, the recipe is healthy. It calls for healthy ingredients such as plain yogurt and garlic.
What to Eat with Garlic Naan?
The naan bread can be eaten on its own but they are best served with Indian curries or mango chutney.
For a wholesome Indian meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Transfer the all-purpose flour to a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Add the yeast mixture, yogurt, oil and knead the dough until the surface becomes smooth and shiny, about 10 minutes. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place (for example: beside the stove top or warm oven). The dough should double in size, about 1 hour.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Roll the dough to a 8" circle using a rolling spin. Sprinkle and press some minced garlic and chopped cilantro leaves on the top surface of the dough.
Heat up a cast-iron skillet over high heat and lightly grease the surface with some oil. Place the dough (with the garlic and cilantro side up) on the skillet. When the naan dough puffs up, bubbles and burnt spots appear , flip it over and cook the other side. Repeat the same until all dough are done.
Brush the naan with some melted butter and serve warm.
This recipe I have tested so many times. If you can't a dough, it means you are not following the recipe correctly or didn't measure precisely.
I agree and I love the recipes on this site generally but there is not enough flour called for in this recipe. Followed exactly.
Ashoka, what are you talking about? The recipe is just 3 seconds to scroll down, what do you mean scroll so many times???
can anything be substituted for the yogurt?
You can sub sour cream for the yogurt.
Reading above comments, I'm thinking the recipe might need adjusting for higher or lower altitudes?
Probably, but I have tried this recipe so many times, never have a problem.
Can I use this bread as a Pizza base?btw,the bread looks yummm!


There are several laws of information security. Ask ten InfoSec pros and you will likely get ten different lists of laws, but I wager every one of them will agree on a couple fundamentals. If an attacker can gain physical access to the computer, or if an attacker can modify the operating system, then the attacker can compromise the computer. The reason is physical access allows an attacker to bypass the OS and directly access the data, and bypass the security controls.
Now, switch gears and picture a virtual environment. The physical analog is the hypervisor. If an attacker can gain access to the hypervisor, he has the same abilities as if he had access to the physical computer. If an attacker can exploit the Windows or Linux server hosting Hyper-V or XenServer, then the attacker can compromise all virtual computers on the host.
It is a subtle shift in the way of thinking. In the past, only one server ran on one piece of hardware, and the security boundary was the server itself. Thus you would place a physical web server in the DMZ and physically wire it to the firewalls. Computers with different security postures (e.g., domain controllers) would be on separate physical hardware and wired into separate physical networks.
Thus the hypervisor should host servers that have relatively the same security posture. One should not, for instance, host domain controllers and public-facing web servers on the same hypervisor. Even if the public-facing web server is on a separate virtual network, you still run the risk of its compromise affecting the domain controllers.
The security boundary is the physical hardware, not the computer itself.


Looks like somebody has issues with that whole "interspecies cooperation" thang. Captions in the comments as always.
Celebrity Dad Faceoff And Happy 4th of July!
Viggo, we love you. That is very obvious by the way you have handily trounced each and every opponent you have faced thus far on the Celebrity Dad Faceoff.
Therefore, I am giving you a permanent place in our Celebrity Dad Hall of Fame, where your beautiful visage will gaze out on us and we will throw ourselves at your feet. Or, er, at you, which is kind of the same thing. It is fitting that this should happen on a national holiday, don't you think?
And while I was at the whole revamping thing, I thought to myself, why have I placed this artificial restriction to have these gorgeous men in "natural" photos? I say go for the best pics I can find!
So, I would like to introduce a brand new set of contenders to kick off a whole new round of CDFO.


The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports for Roundtop.
The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Roundtop.
The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Roundtop.
The flat-topped, glacier-covered Roundtop is the easternmost and lowest of an E-W-trending line of volcanoes on eastern Unimak Island, 13 km SW of the village of False Pass. The snow and ice-covered edifice fills much of a 3-km-wide caldera that formed during the early Holocene. The caldera-forming eruption produced pyroclastic flows and a rhyolitic tephra layer that is widespread throughout the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula. A group of lava domes was constructed south of the volcano. No historical eruptions are known, but in the 1930's warm springs were found on its slopes.
Carson E C, Fournelle J H, Miller T P, Mickelson D M, 2002. Holocene tephrochonology of the Cold Bay area, southwest Alaska. Quat Sci Rev, 21: 2213-2228.
Miller T P, 1999. Newly identified early Holocene caldera-forming druption from Roundtop volcano, Unimak Island, Alaska. Eos, Trans Amer Geophys Union, 1999 Fall Mtg, abs V51B-17.
There is no Deformation History data available for Roundtop.
There is no Emissions History data available for Roundtop.
The flat-topped, glacier-covered Roundtop volcano, rising to the west beyond buildings of the village of False Pass, is the easternmost and lowest of an E-W-trending line of volcanoes on Unimak Island. Roundtop has produced Holocene pyroclastic flows, and a group of lava domes was constructed south of the volcano. No historical eruptions are known from the 1871-m-high stratovolcano. In the 1930s warm springs were found on its slopes.
Photo by Game McGimsey, 1998 (Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey).
There are no samples for Roundtop in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.
IRIS seismic stations/networks Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Roundtop. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.
Large Eruptions of Roundtop Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).


text:
ABBE SIEYES THIRD ESTATE PDF
General, Sieyès issued his pamphlet Qu'est-ce que le tiers état? in which he identified the unprivileged Third Estate with the French nation and asserted that it . Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes () was the son of a minor financial successful was his pamphlet that he was elected deputy of the Third Estate of Paris. What ministers have tried to do in the interests of the Third Estate, and what the privileged themselves propose to do for it;. 5. What should have been done;. 6.
Author: Kazishura Mezilmaran
Country: Dominica
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But the thought is always prior to the fact; all the facts of history preexist in the mind as laws. Zieyes served in both the National Constituent Assembly and the National Conventionparticipating in constitutional discussions and drafting.
Framework Convention on National minorities. The noble order is not less estranged from the generality of us by its civil and political prerogatives.
This fourth class embraces all those who stand between the most distinguished and liberal professions and the less esteemed services of domestics. In setting aside any function whatsoever to serve as an appanage for a distinct class among citizens, is it not to be observed that it is no longer the man alone who does the work that it is necessary to reward, but all the unemployed members of that same caste, and also the entire families of those whoa re employed as well as those who are not?
Outside of these three classes of productive and useful citizens, who are occupied with real objects of consumption and use, there is also need in a society of a series of efforts and pains, whose objects are directly useful or agreeable to the individual.
What Is the Third Estate?
Hundreds of essays and political pamphlets were published and circulated. The ideas contained in What is the Third Estate? The plan of this book abbee fairly simple.
He called for voting at the Estates General to be conducted by head that is, by a tally of individual deputies rather than by order the Estates voting in blocs. What does it want to be?
It suffices here to have made it clear that the pretended utility of a privileged order for the public service is nothing more than a chimera; that with it all that which is burdensome in this service is performed by the Third Estate; that without it the superior places would be infinitely better filled; that they naturally ought to be the lot and the recompense of ability and recognized services, and that if privileged persons have come to usurp all the lucrative and honorable posts, it is a hateful injustice to the rank and file of citizens and at the same a treason to the public.
A WILD YEARNING PENELOPE WILLIAMSON PDF
This uncertainty triggered a national discussion about the formation, operation and powers of the Estates General. Such are the efforts of the second class. I know that there are individuals in great number whom infirmities, incapacity, incurable laziness, or the weight of bad habits render strangers tot eh labors of society.
He desired a constitutional monarchy and a bourgeois democracy rather than a popular republic, nor could not bring himself to attack the church as he had attacked the nobility. Such are the efforts which sustain society. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.
It would be superfluous to take them up one by one, for the purpose of showing that everywhere the Third Estate attends to nineteen-twentieths of them, with this distinction; that it is laden with all that which is really painful, with all the burdens which the privileged classes refuse to carry. It is not sufficient to show that privileged persons, far from being useful to the nation, cannot but enfeeble and injure it; it is necessary to prove further that the noble order does not enter at all into the social organization; that it may indeed be a burden upon the nation, but that it cannot of itself constitute a nation.
Its it not to be remarked that since the government has become the patrimony of a particular class, it has been distended beyond all measure; places have been created not on account of the necessities of the governed, but in the interests of the governing, etc. We must ask ourselves three questions.
Abbé Sieyès | The Core Curriculum
He participated in the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the constitution of Is it not evident that the noble order has privileges and expenditures which it dares to call its rights, but which are apart from the rights of the great body of citizens?
It crystallised the grievances of ordinary people in a rational and logical manner. All individual efforts may be included in for classes: Has not attention been called to the fact that this order of things, which is basely and–I even presume to say–beastly respectable with us, when we find it in thir the History of Ancient Egypt or the accounts of Voyages to the Indies, is despicable, monstrous, destructive of all industry, the enemy of social progress; above all degrading to the human race in general, and particularly intolerable to Europeans, etc.
HERMENEUTICAL SPIRAL OSBORNE PDF
Public functions may be classified equally well, in the present state of affairs, under four recognized heads; sieyess sword, the robe, the church and the administration.
In September three Directors ousted two others who were thought to be in favour of a restoration of the monarchy and an associated negotiated peace. The exception and the abuse esfate everywhere found beside the rule. Other significant figures and factions. Featured in Macworld – one of the best history sites on the web. He advocated the abandonment of the traditional functioning of the three Estates as hhird blocs and the formation of a single chamber National Assembly.
Modern equivalent theories building upon the ideas within pluralistic state theory are libertarian socialism and free-market anarchism. What is a nation?
What is the Third Estate? – Abbe Sieyes – HistoryWiz
In May elections returned a large number of radical Jacobin deputies and the then Directors decided to ignore the election results.
In Augustthe king ordered the convocation of the Estates General in the middle of the following year. It challenged traditional conceptions of nation and government while urging its readers not to accept hollow promises or compromises. Louis Napoleon, who later became the Emperor Napoleon IIIattains to power in France offering social stability at home but ultimately abbs policies productive of dramatic change tbird the wider European structure of states and thirv sovereignty.
He achieved prominent positions at the Diocese of Chartres. The Third Estate has to pay tax. Epoch siyees epoch, camp, kingdom, empire, republic, democracy, are merely the application of his manifold spirit to the manifold world. One pamphlet, written by a middle-ranking clergyman, inflamed these political aspirations more than any other. At this point, there was uncertainty about the composition and operation of the Estates General. In the first place, it is not possible in the number of all the elementary parts of sieues nation to find a place for the caste of nobles.
In Septemberthe Paris parlement ruled the Estates General must adopt the same form as it had in — that is, with voting conducted by order rather than by head.
He urged members of the Third Estate to demand a constitution and greater political representation.
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HAKIMIYYETI 48 QANUNU PDF
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


You swore on a stack of Bibles that you were going to do budgeting and stick to it. This would solve all of your money problems and you'd be able to ride off into the sunset in a state of financial bliss.
So, you create a budget, get barely 2 weeks out when you realize you've already blown it. But you, being the resolute person you are, keep pushing and you make it through your first month.
The problem is that when you review your spending you find it was nowhere close to the budget you had created. I mean, how could you have predicted your dog would need an emergency trip to the vet at a cost of $80?
Month two comes and goes and you find your spending still isn't within your budget. This time it wasn't the dog. It was because you dropped your smart phone engendering a cost of $75 to replace its broken face.
After a third month, you're still trying your best to stick to your budget but it's just not working. You feel yourself getting more and more frustrated because budgeting just isn't doing what it was supposed to do for you. You go on for several more months and then give up.
If this sounds familiar, don't despair. The problem isn't that you're a bad money manager. It's that you're thinking about things all wrong. Just like the rest of us, you are taught to think in terms of months. And that just makes sense. After all, your utility bill is due every month as is your cell phone bill, your insurance premium and maybe payments on your student loans or maybe you need to make payments on a low-interest debt consolidation loan you used to get your debt under control.But when you think about things only in terms of months, it's practically guaranteed that you will fail at budgeting.
If you think only in terms of a single month your budget will become rigid and there'll be little room for flexibility. If one thing goes wrong – like that trip to the vet – it can blow your budget for the entire month. These types of expenses are unanticipated but you must expect them. When you're budgeting from one month to the next, you can't anticipate the unexpected. There's just no way that you can react when circumstances change and your budget gets totally blown.
When Christmas rolls around you'll be required to buy gifts for everyone in your family and maybe your spouse's family. Then there is all that food, lights, pictures, decorations, drinks and entertainment. There are also holidays such as Halloween that require costumes and parties. Plus, there are holidays such as New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July where you'll be spending extra money. There are basically five months out of the year where there is some sort of a major holiday that will cost you something.
We haven't yet included your wants. Some months you'll want to take a weekend vacation. On others, you may want to eat out a lot or use up a lot of gas visiting friends. Then there'll be months when you just stay home. The fact is that no two months look alike. They're all different. And if you budget as if they were all the same, you're doomed to fail.
A better way to budget is to stop focusing narrowly on month-to-month but look instead for overall trends. If you're still in your first few months of budgeting, don't despair if you're not constantly on target. This is actually part of the process. The important thing is to not stop trying to reach your goals. After maybe six months you should be able to see your spending trends. After a year, you'll have a very good idea what your typical month looks like. This is when you can begin budgeting more accurately.
Take, for example, Christmas you might find you spent roughly $600 on Christmas last year. That was everything – Christmas cards, decorations, presents and other miscellaneous expenses. So, beginning in January you need to set aside about $60 per month just to cover those Christmas expenses that you'll eventually run into.
You can do the same thing to cover all of your unexpected expenses. After a year, you'll have seen what they are and whether it's birthdays, holidays, car repairs or even medical bills you can budget for them by setting aside a certain amount each month. For example, you might set aside $250 per month to cover your unexpected expenses. Any of this you don't spend you can just put into your savings for use later.
Spotting overall trends in your spending is a lot easier if you get some helpful software. This is the easiest way to develop a solid picture of what's happening to you financially and to spot trends over the long run. One of the most popular of these is You Need a Budget (YNAB). It's great for tracking all your expenses. If for some reason you'd rather not use YNAB three other good ones are Personal Capital, Mint and Quicken. While Personal Capital is great for tracking investments and seeing all of your accounts together, it's a bit lacking on the budgeting side. Quicken is much better on budgeting compared to Personal Capital but doesn't offer quite as much flexibility as YNAB. And of course, there's something to be said for creating your own spreadsheets. This obviously requires more effort and time but there's a lot of personal reward to be gained when you create something yourself.
Make no mistake about it. It's hard to budget. It's hard to stay on a budget. But it can be done. Get a budgeting app, make a budget and get started. You'll undoubtedly start by screwing it up. But that's the only way for you to learn how things work for you. Don't get discouraged. We all miss our goals initially. But if you keep on keepin' on you will win in the long run. You'll have your finances under control and you'll be able to ride off into the sunset in that state of financial bliss we mentioned in the first paragraph.


text:
Marijuana » Marijuana News
Panics, then & now
by John Sinclair
I'd like to start by saying what a pleasure and a privilege it is to have been alternating in this space for almost a full year with one of my favorite writers, Larry Gabriel, whose column last week was particularly informative and told me everything I wanted to know about what's been happening in Michigan since the shit hit the medical marijuana fan last month.
The August events that rattled the cannabis community certainly seem to have been designed to throw a massive scare into smokers and suppliers, leaving patients and their caregivers trembling in fear of arrest or serious disruption of their medicine delivery systems.
In a way, the latest panic took me back almost 45 years to January of 1967, when the Detroit Narcotics Department staged a mammoth invasion of the local bohemian community centered on the Detroit Artists Workshop and the neighborhood around Wayne State University. A total of 56 citizens were arrested in a "lightning campus dope raid" that cast a serious chill on the entire scene that was beginning to cohere around the Grande Ballroom and the burgeoning local rock 'n' roll movement that was showcased there every week.
The 56 arrestees in 1967 ended up being subjected to little in the way of legal prosecution. Most were released without drug charges of any kind, suffering only for their presence in one of the places where 11 felony warrants were being served on persons who had been identified by the narcotics police as users or possessors of small amounts of marijuana.
This writer appeared to be the central target of the operation. I was accused of having given two joints to an undercover policewoman at the Artists Workshop just before the previous Christmas. Since this gift came under the "distribution and sales of narcotics" section of the Michigan drug statutes, I was charged with Violation of State Narcotics Laws and, if convicted of this heinous crime, was subject to a sentence of a minimum mandatory 20 years with a possible maximum of life imprisonment.
More seriously, I had been a vocal opponent of the state narcotics laws and a proponent of marijuana legalization since founding Detroit LEMAR two years earlier and had suffered two previous convictions for possession. As a confirmed marijuana smoker looking forward to a lifetime of arrest after arrest under the existing law, I decided to dedicate myself to fighting back and, with the unswerving support of a fearless legal team headed by attorneys Sheldon Otis and Justin Ravitz, mounted a serious challenge to the constitutionality of the Michigan marijuana laws.
Marijuana was classified as a narcotic. We contended on a pre-trial basis that it was not a narcotic and had been defined as such without any scientific basis. The penalty for simple possession of marijuana in any amount was 1-10 years in prison, with a minimum sentence of 20 years to life for sales or distribution. We contended that such treatment constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Other legal issues were raised and, for the first time in Detroit Recorders Court history, a three-judge panel was appointed to evaluate our argument and decide whether the case should proceed to trial.
Eventually, the panel ruled that the constitutional issues could only be adjudicated upon conviction in Recorders Court and appeal to a higher legal body, the Michigan Court of Appeals. So, in July 1969, I went to trial, sustained a conviction for possession of two joints after the dispensing charge was dropped, and received a sentence of 9-1/2 to 10 years in the Michigan prison system. An appeal was promptly filed based on my constitutional challenge, but the Detroit judge, Robert J. Colombo, denied my petition for appeal bond and sent me to Jackson Prison to begin serving my sentence while my legal appeal worked its way through the Court of Appeals to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Another two-and-a-half years of legal struggle ensued while I was held under maximum security conditions for a year in Marquette Prison in the Upper Peninsula, and then in Jackson, "the world's largest walled prison," awaiting the results of my appeal and taking spiritual sustenance from the concerted efforts of my family, friends and supporters to gain my release. Countless benefits and rallies involving scores of bands and speakers were staged on my behalf while the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against me and my case was argued before the Michigan Supreme Court.
To make a long story just a little bit shorter, my ordeal came to a sudden conclusion on Dec. 13, 1971, when I was released from Jackson on appeal bond. That was three days after John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Bobby Seale and an incredible cast of fellow performers and activists came together with 15,000 frenzied supporters at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor for the John Sinclair Freedom Rally. And it was only four days after the Michigan Legislature passed a new drug law that removed marijuana from the narcotics list and reduced the sentence for possession to one year and for sales to a maximum of four years in prison.
This salubrious outcome provided somewhat of a happy ending to the ugly sequence of events that had started with the "lightning campus dope raid" of Jan. 24, 1967— almost five years before. I will always believe that it was our open defiance of the marijuana laws, our overt advocacy of marijuana legalization, and our sustained legal challenge to the constitutionality of the marijuana laws that helped create the climate in Michigan that we are beginning to enjoy now, and I take considerable pride in having been a key participant in the process.
As I never tire of saying, I'm a registered Michigan marijuana patient now, and I continue to look forward to the day when our voters decide to legalize marijuana once and for all. It took a long time to get from marijuana as a narcotic to the $5 fine for possession in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and East Lansing almost 40 years ago, and much longer for us to progress to the legalization of medical marijuana in 2008. Let's not stop now!
On a strictly personal note, I'd like to invite my readers to join me in celebration of my 70th birthday on Oct. 2, at the Hastings Street Ballroom. This is an entirely unanticipated event, but I'm going to give thanks and try to stay around as long as I can. Sometime this winter will mark 50 years since I smoked my first joint, and on Dec. 10, we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally with a jubilant reunion concert at Masonic Temple.
Finally, I'll be honored with the High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award at the Medical Cannabis Cup gathering at Bert's Warehouse Theatre in Eastern Market on Sunday, Oct. 16 — at 4:20 p.m.
I'd love to see all of you there, and if you bring your patient cards, we can light up together and be somebody.


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Zak Bowen – Piano
Zak Bowen is a pianist, musician, graphic and web designer based in Melbourne, Australia. Shortly after starting primary school, Zak was enrolled in the Primary Music Institute and started learning piano. In 2008, after starting high school, Zak started to develop his piano skills further by starting band work. Zak has gone on to play in numerous bands, stage productions and live gigs since then. Zak was a part of 'Unskooled', a band of 5-10 music students from The Lakes South Morang P-9 School. Zak recorded two albums with the band titled 'Anymore' (2008) and 'My Heart Is Breaking' (2009). Shortly after the band broke up, Zak performed as part of the live band for 'The Lake', a 2010 school production hosted at Parade College. Since then, he has been writing his own material, released two solo albums and has collaborated with a number of musicians. Zak performed as part of the live band for the production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' in July/August 2013.
What role does music play in my life?
Music plays a big role in my life. Music allows me to escape from the world and enter a world of peace and happiness. I started playing piano in 2002 when I first took up piano lessons and since then my passion for music has grown.
What are your influences?
Mika, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Tim Minchin, Elton John
I am currently working on a collaboration album with a friend from the UK and i'm hoping to be involved in a new band later this year. You can see some of my past projects at www.zakbowen.com.
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Since being introduced to band work, my technical knowledge has been lost so I find it very hard to learn music notes and understand sheet music, so I have to find an alternative method.
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Anytune has been a huge help with learning music. It allows me to play along with music at a comfortable pace so I can learn the songs easier. Being able to adjust the pitch also allows me to sing without straining my voice.
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee 08 March 2018
Decision on Taking Business in Private, Sexual Harassment and Inappropriate Conduct, Correspondence.
Decision on Taking Business in Private Sexual Harassment and Inappropriate Conduct Correspondence
Sexual Harassment and Inappropriate Conduct
The Convener (Clare Haughey)
Good morning and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2018 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. We have received apologies from Elaine Smith MSP.
Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Does the committee agree to take agenda item 4, which is on the budget process, in private?
Agenda item 2 is the committee's inquiry into sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. We are joined by Maurice Golden, the business manager for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party; Rhoda Grant, the business manager for the Scottish Labour Party; Patrick Harvie, the business manager for the Scottish Green Party; Bill Kidd, the chief whip for the Scottish National Party; and Willie Rennie, the business manager for the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Thank you all for joining us this morning.
The Scottish Parliament's survey results were published last week and revealed that 45 per cent of those who had experienced sexual harassment said that the perpetrator was an MSP, although MSPs made up less than 8 per cent of those issued with the survey. What do you think are the reasons for that?
I am happy to start. The figures are significant and are a salutary lesson for everyone in the Parliament. The Parliament as a whole and not just each of the parties needs to look at how best we address the issue. MSPs have trust put in them by the electorate—by their constituencies and by the people of Scotland—and it is incumbent on us all to set a high benchmark for society. Those figures let us all down. In the near future, we need to turn them around. We need to ensure that people feel safe and comfortable coming to their work and that whoever they happen to be employed by has a duty of care to them.
We should be deeply concerned but probably unsurprised by some of the findings of the survey. In many walks of life, whether in the public eye or out of it, we have seen that the abuse of power is part of the dynamic. In show business, and in religious and other organisations, we have seen scandals emerge and growing recognition of an intolerable problem. I do not think that we should be surprised that it is the case in politics, too. We need to take collective responsibility, not just for the scale of the problem but for the power dynamics involved. In political life, the fact that some people in elected office are protected from the consequences that might come to bear in other workplaces is an unavoidable reality. In designing the processes and systems that we use to respond to the problem, we need to take responsibility for that.
The findings are deeply disappointing. We all had higher expectations of our colleagues and the figures are quite stark.
We have to try to drill down into those figures. Although 45 per cent of respondents who had experienced harassment said that the perpetrator was an MSP, it could be one MSP. If we drill down into the report, we can see that it was seldom one incident that was being reported; it was quite often a number of incidents and sometimes almost perpetual bad behaviour. What we find, quite often, is that one person or perhaps two people have been abusing their power. I suppose that we are no different in that from any other walk of life, but we need to ensure that people are comfortable about coming forward to report such behaviour. The chances are that we are speaking about a minority of members who are abusing their power and the position that they have been put in, and that they need to be dealt with to stop the recurrence of that behaviour.
As a Parliament, we need to create the right circumstances for people to feel empowered to come forward and get the right support.
I was shocked and surprised by the survey results. Rhoda Grant makes a very good point in the sense that, if it is indeed a small number—a tiny proportion of individuals—who are perpetrating these acts, that is quite a different issue from the culture being the problem.
Although I appreciate that the culture could vary within individual parties, my overall impression of the Parliament, as a new parliamentarian, is that the culture in this institution is similar to that in other public bodies—for example, the culture in Scottish Enterprise or Scottish Natural Heritage, which I have experience of. That does not mean that there could not be issues but there is not a cultural issue to address. That is my sense from my experience in Parliament.
On how we then look to deal with these issues and what processes we can put in place as parties and indeed as a Parliament, the steps that have been taken over the past few months are to be welcomed in terms of making sure that everybody is aware of the issue and that we are actively helping people, where there is an issue, to address it in an appropriate manner.
I suspect that the survey results might shake us from our complacency a little bit because we believed that we were better; we thought that Westminster was the place where it all happened and that up here, somehow, because we have a different culture and a different approach and we are a new institution, we were not subject to that. I hope that it might have just shaken everybody up a little bit and made them test their procedures and make sure that we understand what kind of culture we have established here.
I accept all the points that have been made—it might be one person who is responsible, or it might be a number of people—but the fact that, of the respondents who had experienced sexual harassment, 45 per cent said the perpetrator was an MSP, shows that the issue is quite widespread so we need to try to review our procedures and make sure that we have got them right.
The response rate to the Westminster survey was quite low and therefore the authenticity of it was probably less. The response rate to the Scottish Parliament survey was quite high, so perhaps it is even more reflective of what is happening.
I was a member at Westminster—I was there for four years—so I have experienced both cultures. There is a late night voting culture at Westminster—we had to be there until 10 pm. I am not saying that everybody goes for a drink but everybody goes for a meal and there is an awful lot more socialising than perhaps there is here, so you would think that there was more propensity for such behaviour to happen down there. However, the fact that the figures are so high should give us a bit of a wake-up call about the need to look again at our procedures.
To return to the survey, the most common response among those who had experienced inappropriate behaviour was to take no action. Why do you believe people are so reluctant to come forward when they have experienced this type of behaviour?
Bill Kidd
I have had a think about this. I have spoken to quite a number of members of staff over the past few months about the issue and I think that some people might have felt that, as has just been said by Willie Rennie, the cultural mindset is different here from that at Westminster, so maybe if they experienced something, they felt that they were on their own. They felt alone and they did not know that there were other people in a similar circumstance, which made it much more difficult for them to come forward and say something.
The fact that the survey has uncovered figures that are higher than we would have hoped for might open people's eyes to the fact that the right thing to do is to make representations about what is happening—in other words, to let people know about it—and, if necessary, to make a complaint. Such horrible things happen in recesses away from the public eye, and if we can bring harassment and inappropriate behaviour into the public eye, that will help to reduce it significantly. I feel really bad about people keeping such behaviour to themselves and being afraid to say anything.
I want to mention three factors, one of which is relevant to the whole of our society. There has been a sense of people simply putting up with the endemic nature of sexual harassment and sexist and sexually entitled behaviour. Part of the reason for the committee's inquiry is that there is a mood afoot that time is up on such behaviour and that there is a need for change and a refusal to tolerate it. Throughout society—not just in this country but around the world—there has been a sense that women in particular have felt it necessary to live their lives with the expectation that such behaviour is normal. If we are now saying that it is not normal, we need to recognise that that is a moment for change in our culture.
There are two specific additional inhibiting factors that I think are relevant to the Scottish Parliament as an institution when it comes to people reporting such behaviour. The first of those factors is to do with loyalty. Most people who work in the political part of Parliament—I am not necessarily talking about Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body staff or officials—have a sense of loyalty and commitment to the party group and to the politicians with whom they work, and there will be a feeling of reluctance to do something that would damage an organisation that they have a sincere personal commitment to. For me, that is an additional reason why Parliament should have its own procedures for reporting neutrally that do not rely on people raising an issue inside a political party. They should be able to do that if they wish to, but the additional option of a neutral, non-party-political route for raising such matters should be available to them.
The second factor relates, of course, to scrutiny. If, as has happened recently, an issue becomes high profile and becomes the subject of public comment, that might be an additional inhibiting factor. People might simply not want to face the prospect of going through such an ordeal, which could drag on for months and prevent them from being able to get on with their lives. There is probably not a simple solution to that, but I think that quick resolution of complaints that are raised will help and will avoid the perception that, if someone raises an issue, it will dominate their life for months and months.
I think that the issue comes down to power dynamics, because people use and abuse their power to harass other people. They pick on people who, they hope, will not come forward because they are senior to them. That happens in most walks of life.
Another issue that impacts on the Parliament is the fact that MSPs are the employers of their own staff. Under our contracts of employment, we have a grievance procedure for our staff, but because we are the employers, if someone has a grievance about their employer, there is virtually nowhere for them to go. Because they are employed by that person, neither the Parliament nor the party has any locus in the matter. That means that if someone complains about an MSP who is their employer, they will be worried about the roof over their head and about whether they will be able to continue to work for that person if the relationship totally breaks down. I would argue that that relationship has already broken down if they are being harassed and treated in such a way by their employer.
As a Parliament, we need to look at that dynamic and see what we can build into the measures on how we employ staff that would protect them from the stark choice of having to report sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour or lose the roof over their head. People also need to know that they are being believed. If power dynamics are an issue, and the alleged offender is senior to them—they are probably well respected, too—people may be concerned that their voice will not be heard.
Patrick Harvie mentioned party loyalty and a member of staff being afraid to raise an issue because doing so would cause bad headlines for the party that they are committed to. I would suggest that if a person is harassing a member of staff, they are probably harassing a number of people, which would be even more reputationally damaging to the political party that staff are loyal to. Therefore, it is almost incumbent upon people to weed out that really bad behaviour to protect their party. That is another option to consider.
If a member of staff is talking about their employer, it becomes very difficult to make a complaint because, as I said, people need a roof over their head and they need to eat. I imagine that, most of the time, people would seek alternative employment to get themselves out of such a situation and would never report it. That is the crux of the matter, especially with MSPs, that we need to wrestle and deal with.
An additional point is that the vast majority of people in Parliament have not chosen to work in public life, and maintaining that confidentiality is an obvious and clear barrier to reporting an incident. Given that the vast majority of people would not choose to be in the newspapers, many people might not want to be put in a position whereby journalists will want to hear and to report on their story. I completely understand that.
That issue almost links to my second point, which is about confidence in the process and how a complaint is dealt with. An allegation of sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour must be dealt with confidentially. That approach, which should apply to both individuals, is as much about protecting the individual as it is about anything else. It is absolutely critical that the process is robust to allow incidents to be reported.
Separate to the committee's inquiry, and prior to the revelations coming out, I contacted all the Conservative members of staff to say that if there was any issue at all, including grievance procedures—I did not specify this topic—I was available to speak to them. Such an approach can be helpful to ensure that individuals will report incidents, because it gives them confidence in the system and the process that will follow.
I do not have much more to add. When the #MeToo campaign broke, it was like a dam bursting. All of a sudden, people felt that they could speak and be heard, and they were respected for that. Perhaps, through our process, a dam may burst in the Parliament and the balance between damage limitation, which is often the focus of a political party when there is negative publicity, and doing the right thing might be tilted more in favour of the latter approach.
I agree with all the points that have been made, particularly Maurice Golden's point that many people who work in the Parliament do not do so to come under the spotlight. Dealing with a sexual harassment case is bad enough without having to tell the newspapers at the same time; washing your dirty linen in public is difficult to do. We need to provide easier paths for people to make a complaint and for complaints to be dealt with sensitively.
Kate Forbes (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP)
The fact is that few people who have experienced harassment take action. Over the past few weeks, two of the themes that we have heard about is that that is because they do not know what the procedures are or, if they do, they do not have confidence in them. What in your party's procedures might prevent people from coming forward? Over the past few weeks, what actions have your parties taken to raise awareness of the procedures or to change them? In particular, I want to focus on who the first port of call is. If it is an MSP, that strikes me as a bit of a problem.
Members of staff can choose from a variety of channels. The business manager is one and the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland is another. As a result of our party's experience in recent years, we have set up a pastoral care officer, which is a UK-wide role. Although that person is employed by the party, they are clearly seen by people in the party as separate from the management structure and respected as such. We set up that role two or three years ago, and it seems to have bedded in reasonably well. We are prepared to review that, because it has been suggested that an independent person who is outside the party should conduct that role. However, for now, we want to continue with the current procedure, which is relatively new, to see how it settles in.
We have set up a number of channels: the business manager, the ethical standards commissioner and the pastoral care officer. The pastoral care officer gets reasonably regular correspondence about a number of issues, so they are seen to be a major part of the party structure.
How is information on that circulated so that all party members are aware of the process?
Everybody received a letter—it was from Mike Rumbles, as he was business manager at the time—which sets out everything clearly and specifies how to define bullying and harassment. We think that the approach is pretty transparent for members of staff.
The process that Willie Rennie described is a logical one, and I hope that the SNP's approach is reasonably logical, too. I am the chief whip in the SNP group in the Scottish Parliament, but we have a team of whips, who are not all men. On that basis, I hope that if a woman had an issue and felt uncomfortable about speaking to a man about it, they might find someone who is easier to speak to.
I will say something more about how the party operates in the Scottish Parliament, but first I want to say that there is and should be a sort of camaraderie element. People do not feel that they are isolated and have no one to talk to because they are sitting in their own wee box in an office—there is a mixing that goes on. When people have had issues with an MSP or someone else, I have sometimes heard about it not directly from the person in the first instance but from others who have spoken on their behalf. As was mentioned, somebody might be embarrassed or worried about talking about the issue. They might be worried about losing their job or having the focus of attention shift on to them. That sort of reporting happens, although that is anecdotal to an extent.
On the party procedure, all SNP staff in the Parliaments in which we have SNP representation and at the SNP's headquarters received a letter from Nicola Sturgeon as party leader, which outlined the duties of care that we all have to each other and named a solicitor with the firm of lawyers that the SNP uses to whom people can report things. Also outwith Parliament, there is a point of contact at the SNP headquarters, which is the party clerk. SNP members are encouraged to go people outwith the group of MSPs if they feel that there is an issue.
On the issue of party procedures, members will be aware that the Scottish Green Party has gone through a huge amount of change in recent years. Our membership is much bigger than it was before 2014, so we have been trying to review and reform how we organise the party, to a great extent. That process has been delayed by the amount of elections and referendums that have come along since then, but we have made progress on the conduct complaints side—more than we have made on other things.
We used to have a system that involved a slightly arcane process. It took too long to resolve issues—that refers to the first part of Kate Forbes's question, because one of the reasons why people were unhappy about raising an issue internally in the party was the length of time that it could take to resolve the issue. The process also involved not only some elected members of the party but a random selection of party members, who played the role of a jury, in a sense, in certain circumstances. Again, that gave rise to lots of problems around timescales, people's access to the right amount of support and people's ability to understand issues.
Recently, we have done away with that system. We have set up a new system whereby each branch appoints a welfare and conduct officer, who has to be someone who does not have any other position in the party, whether that involves being an officer, a candidate or anything like that. The group of welfare and conduct officers works together across all our branches, and our national conduct and complaints committee is developing new processes.
The policy that was put in place was to be discussed at our party council meeting the other week, but that was cancelled because of the bad weather. That was the meeting at which we were supposed to put in place new procedures for the interim period between the old system going out and the new one coming in.
Basically, we are in the middle of quite an extensive redesign of how we deal with all matters to do with complaints, conduct and the welfare of our party members. Once that is in place, our parliamentary group will more than likely apply that in the same way that the branch would, by having one person who does not hold another office—so it would not be an MSP—acting as a welfare and conduct officer, and tying into the rest of the party. If a complaint goes through that process, that would involve our operations manager—that is, our senior staff member—working with our standing orders committee and our operations committee to develop processes that are right for each circumstance.
As we are a small political group, we do not have the big team of whips that the SNP group might have, for example. Therefore, we are keen to ensure that issues can be resolved without relying on someone who might be involved in the issue or who might be a close colleague of the person who had been complained about. We would be keen to ensure that the process taps into the party's external processes.
I would add one final caveat. I know that the committee has discussed the lack of the ultimate backstop of an MSP being dismissed from their job. If complaints of the sort that we are talking about all go through political parties, I fear that we might still be in a position in which that backstop is not possible, because the outcome of an investigation needs to be available to a body that has the authority to make a decision around disciplining a member to the point of expulsion or removal from office. A political party would not be in the position to do that. Again, that leads me to ask whether we should expect people to go through party procedures in these kinds of circumstances. It seems to me that, with regard to the most serious issues, where we would want a disciplinary option to be available, we should be able to tap into an independent and official process for disciplining MSPs, and not necessarily a party process, as that process might not be capable of taking that kind of disciplinary action.
We have a formal process, which the committee has details of. However, as everyone recognises that a formal process is probably not the first port of call for somebody experiencing the issues that we are talking about, we also have a contract with Rape Crisis Scotland for a confidential helpline that people can contact.
We are also clear that we need to do as much as we can to support and encourage people to come forward, and we have reminded staff that they can contact their leader or our group executive members. In other words, they are able to contact five different people in the party group. I know that people might be reluctant to contact someone whom they see as a friend of the person about whom they are complaining, so it is really important that we give them a variety of people whom they can contact and raise the issue with. They can also raise the issue with the general secretary of our party, so there are a number of routes that can be taken.
Of course, the issue can also be raised with the police. Sexual assault is a crime, and if that is what people are facing, they do not necessarily have to go through any party procedure—they can just report the matter to the police. Indeed, I would encourage anyone who wants to disclose behaviour that falls into that category to do so.
What is most important, however, is that we get beside the person and support them. It is quite a frightening place to be in, especially if you feel that your life and work are being affected, and it is really important that there are people beside them not only to help and support them through the process but to let them be in charge of the steps that they take.
There is widespread knowledge in the Conservative group of how to report an incident, and there are a number of channels by which an individual can do that. For example, there is a confidential phone line and email address as well as—if you like—slightly more informal mechanisms via me as chief whip and business manager, via the director of the party, via our staff representatives at Holyrood, although they are not there specifically to deal with this topic, and via members of staff trained in mental health issues. There are a number of routes through which people can choose to raise not only this particular topic but a range of other issues.
I certainly have confidence in the code of conduct and how the system works, and I think that we would need to be very careful about putting a non-party system in place. I will give you an example to illustrate my concern about putting in place a system that did not come from the parties. After the Scottish parliamentary elections, a member from another party made a claim to the police about a dispute over irregular election expenses. That person then immediately phoned the journalists, who managed to confirm that the individual in question was being investigated for a breach of election rules, and the story ran for six months until the police dropped the case. MSPs would somehow need to be protected from vexatious claims if they were deemed not guilty. It be inappropriate for the individual MSPs concerned if parties were to choose to make vexatious claims about them, but we also need to remember that we are all here to give individuals not only confidence in the system but confidence that things can be kept confidential if they so wish and that we actually deal with sexual harassment and bullying issues. That must be the focus of any recommendations of the parties or, indeed, the committee, and I am therefore not convinced that another system would necessarily solve the issue.
What would be the solution to a situation involving individuals from two or more parties?
I believe that, if a member of staff from your party made an accusation about an MSP from my party, both parties would work together on the matter. I would expect your party to support your member of staff, and I would expect our party to take the matter very seriously and deal with the perpetrator of the abuse.
I do not think that the issue is party political; it is much too serious to be used in party-political game playing. It is in all our interests to ensure that sexual harassment is weeded out, and if that means us all working together, I think that we will do that. I would have no problem whatsoever in working with another party if I thought that one of my members was perpetrating that kind of abuse against anyone in the Parliament or in another party.
Kate Forbes's question is important. I agree entirely with Rhoda Grant; I definitely think that we would work together across the parties to address such a challenge. The parliamentary authorities are very helpful on such issues and would help to bring us together to resolve them. I know for a fact that the chief executive's office and the human resources department would be very willing to provide support should such situations arise.
We will move on to Mr Arthur. I know that we all like to talk, but I ask the panel members to keep their answers slightly shorter.
Good morning to the panel. I want to pick up on the point that Patrick Harvie raised about an ultimate sanction. Clearly, that would have a significant bearing on the confidence in any complaints process. The nature of an MSP's employment is unique, and they can ultimately be disqualified only for acts that breach the threshold of criminality. In other occupations, dismissal can occur for acts of gross misconduct, but that does not necessarily apply to MSPs.
I would like to hear the panel's views on an ultimate sanction and how that could be administered. I would also like to hear any specific thoughts on the power of recall in relation to those matters.
I will kick off. I have been quite a long-term advocate for a system of recall. We need to be careful that it would not be used for political motives and that it was based on disciplinary issues. The system that Westminster has come up with, in which a combination of different thresholds need to be met, including a public threshold, is an appropriate system to adopt.
The Westminster recall system is based on whether an MP has received a prison sentence of less than 12 months—if the sentence is more than 12 months, they are automatically excluded; whether an MP has had a suspension from the standards committee at Westminster; and whether an MP is found to have put in misleading or fraudulent expenses claims by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. Those are the three triggers. The Speaker of the House of Commons will then issue a notice for a petition, which needs to have the support of 10 per cent of the electorate in the MP's constituency.
We would need to take into account that the Scottish Parliament uses a different electoral system, with regional lists, and we would also need to consider internally whether those were the right thresholds.
It should not be a free-for-all. A politically motivated group of people should not be able to try to oust an MSP whom they happen to disagree with politically. A number of thresholds would need to be met. In some way, that would help us to police ourselves in certain circumstances.
There have been a number of individual cases in the Parliament—which I will not mention—that go back a number of years, and we have felt helpless to do anything about them, so I would support the introduction of a system of recall here. We need to look at the Westminster system and understand whether its hurdles or thresholds are the right ones, but the idea is worthy of consideration.
I would have serious concerns about such a system. I can see a case for a system of recall in relation to political matters. For example, if an MSP's constituents were angry at a political decision that the MSP had made—perhaps one that conflicted with their manifesto commitments or their stated policy—they might say that they had a democratic right to change their decision on the election of that MSP.
In my view, having such a recall process specifically in relation to issues such as sexual harassment would inevitably turn the matter into a public campaign. Even if a threshold had been reached to do with disciplinary matters that had been properly investigated, and even if the intention had nothing to do with political matters or the political identity or affiliation of the MSP in question—if, in other words, the process was being used for the right motivation rather than vexatiously—we would still, ultimately, be turning what should be a serious disciplinary matter into a public campaign at the ballot box. I am not suggesting for a moment that the Scottish political landscape should be compared directly to that of the US, but we have seen elsewhere the situation in which someone bragging about committing sexual assault can win high office.
Having such a process would also exacerbate two existing problems that might inhibit people from raising a complaint—the prospect of the issue that they were complaining about being turned into something that dominated their life and made the case extremely high profile, and a lack of consistency in the disciplinary consequences of the action that was being complained about. People need to have confidence that unacceptable behaviour will be dealt with properly and consistently, and I have concerns that a recall mechanism would not achieve that.
I think that there is a far stronger case for reviewing the disqualification criteria that currently exist and ensuring that, as in any other workplace in which there has been a failure to meet certain standards of behaviour, there is a disciplinary process that can result in somebody being dismissed on the ground of gross misconduct or something similar, and I think that that should be taken outside the political process.
Yes. There has to be a process for dealing with people who have committed what will be crimes and who have abused their power. People are elected on political issues, and they seek re-election every five years, which is when people make a judgment about their political ideals. However, there has to be a process to deal with somebody whose behaviour has fallen short, and that process should not be a political or a public process. We have commissioners such as the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland, who look at people's behaviour, so we should look to that system to establish whether there are steps that can be taken when a case is proved against a person and their behaviour has fallen way short of what we would expect from an elected representative.
On recall more generally, the list system does not lend itself to that particularly well given that, in many regions, regardless of what any individual MSP had done, there would be enough voters for the other party to ensure that the requisite number of petitioners was reached.
We need to make a distinction between matters that are the subject of disciplinary action and matters that are the subject of criminal proceedings and, ultimately, criminal convictions, which are quite different. There could be cases in which criminality is seen in a political sense to be justified. An example is the objectors who were involved in the campaign against Trident and who, as a result of their political consciousness, ended up with a criminal conviction. We need to concern ourselves with that distinction. Disciplinary matters need to be dealt with by the party in a way that is proportionate to the act that has been committed.
As everyone has said, it is important that we are now looking at the perpetrator rather than the victim. It is also important that we do not just say, "That was a bad thing to do. Don't do it again." That does not fill anybody with much confidence.
We have to take seriously some direction on disciplinary matters. Perhaps that requires all the parties to work together through the SPCB to consider how we might take matters forward and what would work best in our Parliament. We could borrow from other Parliaments' experiences and maybe even come up with new ideas about how we will handle the future prospects of those who have committed gross misconduct or, indeed, criminal acts. We might need to figure out a hierarchical system of responses from the Parliament and the parties for that. We have not looked deeply enough into that yet. Maybe this inquiry could be a first stepping-stone to doing so.
Confidentiality has been identified as one of the big issues when we have taken evidence—the survey also touched on that. That victims lack confidence about how cases would be treated and the support that they would receive has already come through. What are your parties doing to manage that? Is external support being given to try to bridge that gap? If people believe that the parties are managing that and they do not have confidence in dealing with it, what support mechanisms have you put in place to ensure that outside sources can support you and the victim to have more confidence in the process?
As far as the SNP and the SNP group are concerned, we hope that we are taking the decent and caring approach that everyone would like to see.
On support for complete confidentiality for complainants of misdemeanours against them, we have ensured that names are removed from any documents. If the person could be identified through statements, there are redactions, and there is support for any needed outside interventions that can be brought to bear in support of someone who has suffered such behaviour towards them. That is very important.
The question is a really good one. A lot of people are frightened of reporting anything because they do not know where that would leave them or whether they would be left to deal with things on their own. We talked about that earlier.
It is particularly important that we ensure that those who have had a misdemeanour committed against them have a full apology for a start. That might not be enough, but it would certainly be a beginning. It is important that that apology should come from the person who committed the conduct and from the political party that the person has represented. It is also important that the individual receives support from whichever body is the most appropriate. I think that Rhoda Grant mentioned that that could be from Rape Crisis Scotland. It could be from another counselling office that can help people.
The person who committed the misdemeanour should be offered support to change their behaviour patterns. We are not a court; we are a body of individuals who have come together for a particular cause. We cannot take a criminal-style approach. We are not imprisoning people; we are trying to bring such behaviour to an end and to change the behaviour that some people have been indulging in.
Our formal complaints procedure is anonymised, as is our confidential helpline. However, when people make informal complaints, it is important that they are put in the driving seat. It should be up to them to decide whether their name should be made known and what action they want taken on their behalf. Given that we are talking about an abuse of power, it is important that the victim is empowered through the steps that are taken to put the situation right.
The interim policy that I mentioned and that is being put in place during the redesign of our party's internal processes goes into issues of confidentiality and data protection in relation to sensitive information. The welfare and conduct officers who are currently being appointed have access to external training, which will support them to understand their responsibilities in that regard.
As I said, we are still in the process of implementing the newly designed system. The one area that we are not yet clear about is communicating how it all works to our members, whether that is those in the parliamentary group or our wider party members, once the system is fully up and running. Obviously, the next point of action is to communicate how people access and use the process and to give them confidence that they can do so confidentially.
How do you balance the duty of care to the person who is making the accusation with the duty of care to the person who is being accused? In particular, if they both work in the same building or office environment and both want to continue working in that environment, how do you balance the duty of care to both?
That is a particularly important question. I hope that this would not happen in the vast majority of cases, but in some cases someone might leave the Scottish Parliament because they no longer can or wish to work here. As we talked about earlier, we need to have support for people who have had unfortunate bad behaviour committed towards them, and we need some kind of behaviour counselling for those who have committed such behaviour.
On an everyday matter, the Parliament is a certain size and shape, so it is difficult to isolate people from each other permanently. However, it is important that we co-operate with the parliamentary authority to try to ensure that people are not cheek by jowl and that there is a degree of separation to allow them to feel comfortable coming into work. As I have said, no party can do all of that by itself. We will have to co-operate with the chief executive's office and the Presiding Officer to try to ensure that we have a decent working environment for anyone who has suffered from such behaviour. I know that the Scottish Parliament is willing to co-operate in that.
In general, the principal duty of care has to be to the person who makes the complaint in the first instance. Beyond that, it would be a mistake to be too prescriptive.
Different circumstances will apply. If the complaint has been made informally and the expectation is that unacceptable behaviour is to be constructively challenged, changed and learned from, that is different from a situation in which a much more serious action is being complained about and a disciplinary process has been put into practice at a formal level. Again, it would be different if the case involved someone working in the Parliament, as opposed to someone working in a local office, for example. The important thing is to judge the situation on its own terms and to listen to the needs and wishes of the person who is making the complaint in the first instance.
We would be guided by our pastoral care officer with regard to what would be appropriate in those circumstances because, as Patrick Harvie said, every case will be different. However, it would be helpful to have a professional adviser who could say what would be appropriate in the circumstances. We work closely together, and we probably all want that to continue in as easy a way as possible, so having somebody professional who is slightly removed from the issue might be the way to achieve that approach. However, we should also ensure that we treat everybody appropriately and fairly and do not automatically assume that, because someone has been complained about, they are guilty. Likewise, we should not dismiss those who have complained. Keeping the balance right is pretty difficult in many environments, but that is what we have to try to achieve.
That takes me back to the issue that I raised early in today's session. If you are talking about an MSP harassing their own staff, you are in a difficult position, because the structures in the Parliament do not allow things to be put in place in that regard, as the MSP is the employer. You cannot say, "You must not have any contact with that person," because you have no locus over that employment arrangement.
There are certain things that you can do. For example, if another MSP in your group had a staff vacancy, you could ask them to consider taking on the person who had complained, so that their employment could be protected. However, you have no ability to do that other than by appealing to people's good will. That is the real issue. Until we sort that out and find a way of dealing with that, people will not come forward, because they will be worried about their job. They will know that there are no formal steps that a business manager can take to give them alternative employment and remove them from that situation. To follow the issue through, if there were a way of dismissing the MSP for gross misconduct, that would mean dismissing the person's employer.
We have a difficult problem ahead of us. We need to give serious thought to it, and I hope that the committee will do that. We need to find a way around these issues so that we can provide a safe way by which people can report matters in confidence and with the assurance that their future livelihood is not at stake.
Having a speedy, effective, confidential and commensurate process ultimately helps to deliver the duty of care for both individuals concerned in the issue. As some of my colleagues have highlighted, there are opportunities in each individual case to ensure that the process is carried out effectively, whether that is through the individual working for the group in a different office or whatever. There are ways by which we can ensure that every instance is treated with the utmost care for both individuals concerned.
I thank our witnesses for coming along this morning and providing us with important evidence, which will help us as we consider how to proceed with the inquiry.
Agenda item 3 is consideration of the correspondence that the committee has received from the Equalities and Human Rights Committee. Are we content to note the letter?
Thank you. As previously agreed, we will now move into private session.


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Aniplex Schedules Nisekoi 2, Wagnaria!!3, & Plastic Memories Blu-Rays
Posted by Samantha Ferreira | Mar 25, 2016 | News Reporting |
Tags: anime boston 2016, aniplex of america, nisekoi, plastic memories, wagnaria
Aniplex has a few new Blu-Rays coming up!
Earlier today, Aniplex of America announced that they will release Nisekoi 2, Wagnaria 3, and Plastic Memories on Blu-Ray. The company revealed the release dates for the first two volumes of each series. The full announced lineup is as follows:
Plastic Memories Volume 1: 7/19/2016
Nisekoi 2 Volume 1: 6/21/2016
Wagnaria!!3 Volume 1: 7/28/2016
The first volume of Plastic Memories will include episodes 1-7 of the series in subtitled format, as well as a pair of Cast & Staff Session featurettes and a collection of web previews. The second volume will include the remaining six episodes, as well as a "Staff & Cast Memorial Message Book" and a collection of web previews.
Both volumes will be priced at $74.98, which equals roughly $11.54 per episode.
The first volume of Nisekoi 2 will include the first six episodes of the show in subtitled format. Extra features include:
Textless Opening: Rally Go Round
Textless Ending: Aimai Hertz
Textless Ending: TrIGgER
Textless Ending: Sleep zzz…
Textless Ending: Matador Love
Nisekoi 2 Volume 2 will include episodes 7-12 of the series. Extra features include:
Textless Opening: Magical☆Styling
Textless Ending: marchen ticktack
Textless Ending: Toriame drop
Textless Ending: Crayon Cover
Each volume of Nisekoi 2 will also be priced at $74.98, with an average per-episode cost of $12.50
The first volume of Wagnaria!!3 will include the show's first 7 episodes in subtitled format. The second volume will include volumes 8 through 13, plus the OVA special episode. Both volumes will carry a retail price of $89.98, or $12.85 per episode.
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Mary Nightingale
Mary Nightingale is one of ITN's prestigious news casters, currently reading the early evening and occasionally late evening news.
Mary was taken to the nation's heart as the anchor/presenter of ITV's flagship Wish You Were Here(1999-2001) Mary was already well-loved by Londoners as the co-presenter, with Alastair Stewart, of London News Network's flagship news and features programme, London Tonight, and as the sole presenter of London Today Carlton's lunchtime magazine programme.
She presented BBC 2's Ski Sunday and Off Piste, for BBC Radio 5 Live, The Really Good Food Show, I-Spy, and Most Wanted. She presented Find Your Family on Carlton and in November 2000 presented Rattrap for the ITV Network. Mary recently presented The Carlton Restaurant for the third year, subsequently broadcast on TV. In August 1999 Mary anchored the eclipse on Discovery Europe; 14 hours of live broadcasting from around the world.
In 1994 Mary worked for Reuters Financial Television as a presenter on the early morning financial programme transmitted to city dealers at their desks. Mary also presented and wrote for World Business Report for BBC World Service Television, a twice daily live business programme with a strong emphasis on international, economic and corporate news, plus regular live two-way links with overseas correspondents. From 1990-93 Mary wrote and presented World Business Sattelite for TV Tokyo – a live daily business bulletin including interviews, outside broadcasts and reports.


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Bethlehem police find first case of deadly drug known as 'gray death'
By Pamela Lehman
Of The Morning Call |
BETHLEHEM — A mixture of heroin and opioids known as "gray death" — so dangerous that drug experts say a miniscule grain can kill — is on the streets in the Lehigh Valley and health officials and police fear it will soon cause a wave of deaths.
After making two undercover drug buys last week at a woman's Bethlehem home, investigators became suspicious of the off-white color of the drug and feared the packets might contain fentanyl, a synthetic opioid often used to increase the potency of heroin, said police Sgt. Mike Mish, head of the city's special operations/vice unit.
Fearing a surge of overdoses, Mish said, police got the drug tested immediately and "preliminary results" show the packets allegedly sold by Jennifer Martinez are gray death, a toxic combination of heroin, fentanyl and a synthetic opioid named U-47700.
It may be one of the first appearances of gray death in Pennsylvania, authorities say. The Drug Enforcement Administration lists several states where the drug has been found, but does not include Pennsylvania.
"It's like playing Russian roulette, but this is with six bullets instead of one," said Dr. Kenneth Katz, an emergency room doctor at Lehigh Valley Health Network. "If this catches on, we're going to have a rash of large amounts of deaths."
Gray death is linked to at least 46 overdose deaths across the United States, according to the DEA, and police and medical experts say the deadly chemical combination is a major public safety issue.
The DEA reports that gray death, in addition to the three-drug combo found in Bethlehem, also contains carfentanil, an elephant tranquilizer that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, and can be absorbed through skin contact or inhalation.
Police said the drug buys occurred in Martinez's Marvine-Pembroke home, where her three young children lived, and that she kept the drug in a cup in the kitchen within easy reach of them. The name for the drug refers to its appearance — a gray powder that looks a lot like concrete mix.
Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio said it's the first such case in the city, and authorities in Allentown and the Lehigh County coroner's office said they know of no cases, though they believe it's only a matter of time.
DiLuzio said tests show the Bethlehem drug contained fentanyl, U-47700 — which he described as "7.5 times more powerful than morphine" — and a trace of heroin.
Mish, Bethlehem's head of vice operations, said investigators may take several days to build a case with the goal of getting a bigger dealer, but moved quickly after Martinez's arrest because they feared the packets from the undercover buys might be fentanyl.
"We wanted to get it off the street as fast as possible," he said.
Fentanyl is not new to the Lehigh Valley — there were 45 deaths linked to it in 2016, according to the annual coroner reports in Lehigh and Northampton counties.
The drug is so dangerous, it has already changed the way police officers do their job, DiLuzio said. Officers are advised to wear two pair of gloves, to only analyze the drug while wearing a respirator and safety gear, and to have a second officer nearby equipped with the opiate antidote naloxone.
Late last year, the DEA made similar recommendations, calling carfentanil and other fentanyl-related compounds "a serious danger to public safety, first responder, medical, treatment and laboratory personnel."
Bethlehem police charged Martinez, 31, of the 1200 block of Marvine Street, with endangering the welfare of children, possession of drugs, possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police say Martinez's three children — ages 3 through 9 — were in the home during at least one of the undercover drug buys.
According to court records:
From April 29 through May 4, Bethlehem police undercover officers made two drug buys at Martinez's home. Police say "a quantity" of pink packets containing an off-white powder were purchased and later tested by the state police crime lab. U-47700 is also known by the street name "pink."
After the drugs were preliminarily identified as gray death, police served a search warrant Friday at Martinez's home.
Police found more of the drug "in a cup sitting on the shelf of a kitchen cabinet."
Police also found three packets of heroin in a purse in a second-floor closet as well as a small vial of marijuana.
As police were searching the home, Martinez arrived. She told police the marijuana belonged to her but was "otherwise uncooperative and denied involvement."
Martinez is free after posting $5,000 bail. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Dr. Indra Cidambi, medical director of the Center for Network Therapy in Middlesex, N.J., said the "endless combinations," including the amount and quality of the drugs found in gray death, expose users and first responders to a lot of unknowns.
"Gray death ... is mixed with other synthetic opiates and chemicals that try and combine the highs obtained by multiple substances," Cidambi said.
She said standard first-responder techniques, including the use of opioid blockers like naloxone, "could be ineffective and this is what makes them so deadly."
Katz, the LVHN emergency room doctor, said it's critical the public be informed of the ever-changing array of synthetic and designer drugs.
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"We are now dealing with an unknown and unregulated quantity and quality of these exquisitely potent drugs," Katz said. "And my philosophy is that the more lights that are turned on in the darkness, the harder it is to hide."
pamela.lehman@mcall.com
Twitter @pamelalehman
DANGERS OF GRAY DEATH
What is it: Heroin is mixed with the painkiller fentanyl as well as carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer typically used on elephants and tigers. The drug also contains a synthetic opioid known as U-47700, also known on the street as "pink."
Where else has it appeared: New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and North Carolina.